MOLINE, Ill. — A no-burn notice in Muscatine County went into effect on April 9 at 8:00 a.m. and will last into the foreseeable future.
Director of Emergency Management Chris Jasper represents each fire department whose fire districts are at least partly within Muscatine County. He says that once it has been determined that conditions dangerous to life and property have come to an end, he will notify the State Fire Marshall and the ban will end.
One of the reasons behind the danger and even the warm weather we're experiencing right now is low dew point temperatures. Since we have low dew point temperatures, our air is dry and lacks moisture. The humidity is forecasted to be between 25% and 35% for the coming days, which is very low.
Along with the dry air, the area is seeing gusty southeasterly winds. If a fire were to start, it could spread very rapidly.
It is burning season for many areas and with our current weather conditions, fires can become dangerous relatively quickly.
On Wednesday, we could go from a high fire danger to an extreme fire danger due to GFDI values getting close to the extreme fire category. Thursday and Friday are predicted to go back down to high.
GFDI stands for Grassland Fire Danger Index — a product used by government agencies that calculate the likelihood of fires going out of control. The GFDI estimates up to six days in advance and shows the county-by-county likelihood of a fire getting out of control.
The GFDI uses temperature, relative humidity, wind and curling of fuel (grasses) to determine its indexes. Even if the relative humidity is high and moisture is in the air, high winds and curling values can still lead to high or very high fire danger.
It is not known when the burn ban will end.
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